What is your favorite kitchen gadget? Maybe it’s a blender or a cast iron skillet. Perhaps you love Tupperware or Mason Jar containers. Maybe you have a modern juicer or vegetable slicer or an antique meat grinder that you would not be able to function very well without in your kitchen. Perhaps you have a knife set, or silverware or mixing bowls that have been handed down to you through your family. They not only serve you well, they connect you well.
In The Kitchen of Unitarian Universalism our “gadgets and utensils” that help us do what we do, that connect and guide us, are called our Principles. We currently have seven Principles. The first offers this guidance: every human being has worth and dignity, giving us a starting place for every human interaction. The second extends the first: everyone should be treated fairly and kindly. The third asks us to accept one another and keep on learning from each other. And lest this begins to sound like a list of commands, the fourth affirms that we each are free and must search for the truth in life. The individual right to search for truth is accompanied by the fifth principle which reminds us that we each have a voice in the democratic process. The sixth principle calls us to work for a peaceful, fair and free world. The last principle brings the reality of Spirit back to our own human works in the world by affirming that there is an interdependent web of existence of which we all are a part and that it’s our job to care for it.
How do you “do” your faith? What gadgets and utensils do you turn to when working on what nurtures your soul and more–what nurtures our common life together? These are the gadgets and utensils in our Unitarian Universalist Kitchen.
Bob Patrick
